Leveraging Modern Tools and Strategies for Successful Digital Transformation

Shaun Nesbitt, Chief Digital and Information Officer at Urban Utilities

Shaun Nesbitt, Chief Digital and Information Officer at Urban Utilities

1. What are some of the major challenges and trends that have been impacting the Digital Transformation space lately?

Since the out break of COVID-19,the way in which we interact with our built environment has markedly changed, as has the way we manage and interact with our workforce. These adjustments, together with the increase in cyber threats and the explosion in the use of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning, and the transition to zero carbon emissions have seen the role of a CIO become more complex than ever before.

At Urban Utilities, we are in the process of transforming how we deliver our products and services. We are transitioning from an environment where major programs take years to deliver, to a more agile, continuous delivery model where we, in partnership with stakeholders, guide development teams and create value together. Switching to a product-based service delivery model to bring us closer to our customer, challenging some of the long-held beliefs such as “cloud first” and dealing with some of the ethical issues that arise from cyber and ransomware are just some of the issues we are working through as we seek to transform and align more closely with our business.

Some of the interesting trends we are challenging are in the smart network space where we are testing the use of a block chain project called Helium as a means of accessing a low-energy wide area network. This has raised some interesting questions regarding the role of block chain in our business.The other trend would be standing up a robotics community of practice across Urban Utilities with some exciting projects in the pipeline, including the use of SPOT the robot dog, which will be used help improve worker safety.

2. What keeps you up at night when it comes to some of the major predicaments in the Digital Transformation space?

Cyber risk is the obvious one that comes up, given some recent high-profile incidents both here in Australia and abroad. We’re acutely aware that as we move to a more digital world, our risk of being compromised increases. To mitigate this, we must educate and engage the workforce on the importance of good cyber practices, employ strong business continuity practices and build a highly resilient workforce and digital platform.

I am also very mindful of our people, both within my group and across Urban Utilities. Digital transformation is primarily about ‘people change’ and the impact this change has on our workforce, combined with the impact of COVID, has been significant .At Urban Utilities,we recently completed a major core platform renewal, as well as a significant organisational change to transition to our new target operating model. Whilst exciting, the cumulative effect on people that digital disruption brings must be carefully managed to ensure productivity and mental health is not compromised. My takeaway,having gone through many of these digital transformation programs,is that technology has the ability to positively disrupt so much of what we do but if we fail to connect this digital disruption with our organisational purpose and values,we run the risk of negatively impacting our work force and partners and doing a disservice to the organisation, which dilutes our overall value proposition.

3. Can you tell us about the latest project that you have been working on and what are some of the technological and process elements that you leveraged to make the project successful?

The most significant impact we can have on our community is to run our networks as efficiently as possible, plan for vibrant and livable spaces and to be leaders in managing and enhancing the environment. To achieve this, we must overlay the digital with the physical, which is why we are investing in control systems and sensor networks that allow us to better understand our assets, control them more efficiently and interact with them as a digital twin to allow us to scenarioplan and forecast into the future. We have been running several initiatives from our digital twin used to simulate the impact of changes in our inflows to our sewage treatment plants to ensure they run optimally and that we do not adversely impact our waterways once water is treated.

The most significant impact we can have on our community is to run our networks as efficiently as possible, plan for vibrant and livable spaces and to be leaders in managing and enhancing the environment.

The renewal of our SCADA systems go hand in hand with our digital twin and allow us to remotely controla number of our assets.This is being rolled out in conjunction with a new Enterprise Historian, which allows us to aggregate data across the field and use it to make better decisions on how to optimise our network.

What is different for me is that this project is being run under my group(Digital&Information),despite a significant part of the project being infrastructure related(switchboards,concretes labs).There is a huge amount we can learn from our colleagues in the infrastructure space as it relates to contract management and supplier partnerships, and this collaboration and knowledge-sharing brings the digital team closer to our front line business.

4. Which are some of the technological trends which excite you for the future of the Digital Transformation space?

There is no doubt that block chain,smart contracts and the metaverse will have a pro found impacton the wayin which we interact B2B and B2C.In a digital world,the ability to transactinade centralised, trust less manner and still ensure the integrity of the contract is maintained is going to substantially challenge some current business models. The ability for block chain to provide de centralised, trusted access to a number of services again will challenge the more centralised approach we have had to the delivery of a number of technology services.I also believe the use of robotic process automation (RPA) and machine learning are practical technologies we can harness right now to bring benefit to our work force and facilitate the automation of repetitive,low-value tasks,thus allowing our work force to focus on those activities that create the most value to our community and share holders.

You would also think that running a water utility is simple and unchanging but the more time I spend with our business, the more I learn that we are at the cusp of the most significant transformation in oursector–disrupting our own business model! Up until now,our business has operated using a linear ‘catchment to sea’ approach, which we are now realising may not be the best way to steward this critical resource. By using our data, collaborating with our partners and stakeholders and leveraging our digital twins, we have an opportunity to become more sustainable, improve our impact on the environment and reduce our cost to serve. This, for me, has got to be one of the best opportunities and our digital capability has created the capacity for our business to embrace this opportunity and really live our purpose.

5. How can budding and evolving companies reach you for suggestions to streamline their business?

At Urban Utilities, we recognise that industry plays a pivotal role in helping us solve real-world business problems and the same goes for research institutions with whom we already have a number of partnerships in fields such as robotics and water treatment technologies. I would welcome the opportunity to hear from our partners(both current and future)as to what they are doing to connect with our purpose of enriching quality of life and how working with them could support us in fulfilling our purpose.